Lubricating composition and pour depressor therefor



Patented Nov. 16, 1943 PATENT OFFICE LUBRICATING COMPOSITION AND POUR DEPRESSOR THEREFOR Eugene Lleber, West New Brighton, Staten Island,

and Marvin E. Thorner, Brookl yn, N. Y., as-

signors to Standard Oil Development Company, a corporation of Delaware No Drawing. Application October 31, 1941, Serial No. 417,312

11 Claims. (Cl. 252-53) ..'I'his invention relates to a novel type of poly.

tallic zinc, aluminum, etc., although these types are not as effective as thoseof the Friedel-Crafts merization products and to methods of preparing such products and using them, more particularly In effecting the polymerization, it is desired, as pour depressors in waxy lubricating oils. although not essential, to use an inert solvent or This application is a continuation-in-part of diluent such as a refined kerosene (heavily preapplication Serial No. 343,152, filed June 29, 1940. treated with sulfuric acid before using), or ethylnow issued as Patent No. 2,274,864, dated March ene dichloride; tetrachlorethane, etc. The 3, 19,42, for Eugene Lieber and Marvin E. Thorner. amount of diluents may be from about volume Contrary to the prior art, it. has now been I to 5 volumes, for each volume of the low molecufound that effective pourdepressors for waxy oils lar weight alcohol to be polymerized. can be prepared by the polymerization of low The amount of catalyst to vbe used may va y molecular weight alcohols containing less than 8 widely according to the temperature to be used,' carbon atoms, by means of catalysts of the Friethe desired speed of reaction and the degree of d l c ft ma polymerizatiotn celsif /edimbubto orzligsa/rilgit 1wlilltl The alcohols to be'used include th lower satrange mm. a ou a a u o y we g urated aliphatic alcohols of '7 carbon atoms and E1 the 10;:1 ngglecular wrei ht-il gh ls f fis less, of which the following are typical examples: a 8 Case 0 P y y 8 e0 0 S methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, normal propyl alay e esirable or necessary to se e a y cohol, isopropyl alcohol, the .butyl alcohols, such l p p o s 01' catalyst than in the case as normal butyl alcohol, isobutyl alcohol, second- 0f the t fn lily r xy aligh ia. s; 1lon mzl the ary butyl alcohol, the amyl alcohols, such as namelm 0 e 1311111111111 0 e y butyl. carbinol, s'ec-butyl carbinol, dimethyl ethyl range from about 0 o 2 by weleh 0 rom carbinol, methyl propyl carbinol, and the hexyl abinityg; mol -}to 113 lmols of cataly Per mol of alcohols. These may be used singly or'in combl- P 17 1? e0 0 I nation. In particularwe have found the mixed In carrying out the invention, the aluminum 'amyl alcohols of commerce to be particularly usechloride or other catalyst to be used may be susful Other mixed alcohols may be used, such as pended in the solvent or diluent and then the those obtained, for instance, by hydration of a low molecular weight alcohol to be used is gradmixture of normally gaseous oleflns, e. g. as 013- ually added with stirring, and with'cooling if the talned in the gaseous products formed during the reaction is very vigorous, so astto prevent the cracking 'of heavier normally liquid petroleum temperature of the reaction mix ure from rising fractions of the kerosene, gas oil or lubricating above'about 200 F. If desired, the order of mixoil boiling range. In addition to the saturated ing the raw materials may be changed, for inaliphatic alcohols, one can also use unsaturated stance, by first mixing'the'alcohol with the solphatic alcohols having less than 8 on 3 vent diluent and then adding the catalyst last. atoms such as allyl alcohol and furyl alcohol 38 When carrying out the invention with polyhywell as cyclo aliphatic alcohols such as cyclo hexdmxy 1 1 1 u as glycerol or t y1 glyfl l d ye lcol or polyethylene glycol, which materials are Instead of the above'mentiimed monohydflc generally freely soluble in water and practically alcohols one may also use Poll/hydro alcohms, insoluble in the usual organic solvents, such as such as ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, butyiene high boiling naphtha or kerosene or even in some glycol amylene as wen as tnhydmxy of the chlorinated hydrocarbon solvents, the g sg such as gg g gh alcohols polyhydroxy alcohol may simply be suspended in f g an roxy a suitable liquid medium such as refined kerosene g ggz gg gggz g g fig z ggggg 5 by stirri' ng and then the catalyst is added. 'As methylene glycol hexaethylene she 01. diglyceml the reaction subsides, it maybe desirable to acually heat the reaction mass to a temperature etc. One may also use mixtures of these various between about 150 F to F for a period of mono-, di-, tri-, orhi herh drox alcohols. The catalysts whicl are t be u ed to effect the 1/2 to 10 hours usually about 1 5 hours being polymerization of the above-described alcohols sumcielnt in order to insure complietion of h may be f several types, although those f the desired polymerization reaction. At the end of Friedel-Crafts type are especially preferred, such g,;i 1 t :i hi1$ is 0001621, 6. 8.1110 about as aluminum chloride, ferric chloride, zinc chloan 11 W ne 1' W0 vo umes of ride, antimony chloride, antimony fluoride, stanrefined kerosene and then the aluminum chloride nlc fluoride, boron fluoride and others. Of these, :1 Other 22 37 15 o ed y the low addialumlnum chloride is preferred. Other types of 011 Of We After Settling; e te laye catalysts may be used such as sulfuric acid, hycontaining the decompo ed ill-luminous u e is drogen fluoride, activated clays, silica gel, medrawn off and discarded. The kerosene extract 0 may, if desired, be further washed with water,

and is then distilled under reduced pressure, as with fire and steam or under vacuum (-50 mm. mercury), to about500 F. or 600 F. in order to remove the solvent and low boiling products. The bottoms residue constitutes the desired pour depressor products.

This polymerization product is soluble in mineral lubricating oils and has the property of depressing the pour point of waxy mineral lubricating oils when added thereto in small amounts, forinstance, about 0.1% to 10.0% although usually the amount to be used ranges between about 0.5% and 5.0%. This polymerization product is also useful as a wax modifier for other purposes such as for use as a dewaxing aid for reducing the wax content of waxy oils. This polymerization product may also be used to modify the crystal structure of paraffin wax or various compositions containing large amounts of same to be used for various purposes such as for coating or impregnating paper, etc. or for making various molded wax products.

The invention will be better understood from a consideration of the following experimental During the above described reaction, a vigorous evolution of hydrogen chloride gas took place, thus indicating that'at, least a portion of the chlorine content of the aluminum chloride catalyst was taking part in the reaction.

Another series of tests were made using polyhydroxy alcohols instead of monohydroxy alcohols. The procedure consisted in suspending the polyhydroxy alcohol in a solvent (a refined kerosene) and producing an aluminum chloride complex with the alcohol by the slow addition (about 50 grams every 10 minutes)of aluminum chloride with occasional shaking. The aluminum chloride-polyhydroxy-alcohol complex was allowed to digest under a reflux condenser for 3 to 5 hours at 300 F. and allowed to cool at room temperature by standing over night. After the addition of water to break the complex and to destroy the aluminum chloride, a kerosene extract containing the desired polymerization or autocondensation product was obtained. After the additional washing with water,'the solvent and low boiling products were removed by a fire and steam distillation to 500 or 600 F. The

data: 5 desired products obtained as distillation resi- TABLE I Product Alipathic alcohol Solvent N 0. grams F. grams per cent Nature product added Name Ccs. Kind Ccs 2 l Mixed amyl alcohol"- 500 Ethylene dichloride 200 300 175 3 66 Visc. dark green oil 2 o 500 Refined kerosene 200 300 230 2 102 ..do 0 3 o 500 Tetrachlorethanc. 200 300 200 3 4 Sec. amyl alcohol 400 do 200 300 200 3 5 5 C yclohexanol 500 .do 200 300 200 3 --5 6 Mixed amyl alcohol 500 Refined kerosene 200 300 200 3 53 Visc. dark green oil.-- 15 1 Original oil, pour point +F. In the above tests, anhydrous aluminum chloride was used. It should also be noted that in the distillation of the polymerization product it 4:

was found that a fraction of the polymerization product distilling overhead in the range of 500 F. to 600 F. could be recycled with a further quantity of aluminum chloride to give more of the desired high-boiling alcohol polymers which are useful for depressing the pour point of waxy lubricating oils.

The waxy lubricating oil having an original pour point of +30, used in the above tests was a blend of 10 volumes of bright stock and parts 55 of Manchester spindle oil.

due were soft or hard resins ranging from brown to black in color and were tested for pour depressing potency by testing 2% and 5% blends thereof in a waxy mineral lubricating oil basestock having the pour point of +30 F. The following table shows the types and amounts of polyhydroxy alcohol used as well as the reaction time allowed, description of the product and pour point tests of blends containing the product. In all of these tests 600 cc. of refined (i. e. inert) kerosene were used as solvent and 200 grams of aluminum chloride were used as catalyst, the maximum reaction temperature in that case being 300 F.

TABLE II Summary of data on preparation of pour depressants from glycols Reagents Pour tests Reaction Run Grams Consistency and Amount time, 2% ll! 5% in Glycol used used, hours Held color of product test oil test oil grams F.) F.)

7 Ethylene glycol 200 33 15 Soft black +15 +5 8. do.. 3% 23 .do +5 15 9. ..do. 100 3% +10 --10 10 Glycero 200 5% +15 0 l1 do.... .c 100 3% 25 25 12 Propylene glycol 100 4 15 25 13 Dipropylene glycol 100 4 +5 H Triethylene glycol 100 3 10 2() l5 Hexaethylene glycol... 100 3 15 are very surprising, indeed, from the point of view that the lower polyhydroxy alcohols used as raw material are in most cases insoluble in mineral oil and, in fact, quite water-soluble.

Although the exact chemical structure of the product of this invention is not known, it is believed that a small amount of oxygen originating in the hydroxy groups of theraw material still remains in the final polymerization or autocondensatlon product.

It is not intended that this invention be limited to any of the specific examples which were given merely for the sake of illustration, nor to any theory as to the mechanism of the operation of the invention, but only by the appended claims in which it is intended to claim all novelty inherent in the invention as broadly as the prior art permits.

We claim:

1. A product consisting essentially of a polymerization product of an aliphatic polyhydroxy alcohol having less than 8 carbon atoms, said polymerization product being soluble in mineral oil and substantially non-volatile at about 500 F.

8. Product according to claim 1, made from a dihydroxy alcohol.

3. Product according to claim 1, made from a trihydroxy alcohol.

4. A product made by polymerizing about 1 mol glycerol in the presence of about %-3 mols of aluminum chloride, at a temperature ranging from about room temperature to about 350 F., said polymerization product being oil-soluble and being substantially non-volatile at temperatures up to about 500 F. and having theproperty or depressing the pour point of waxy mineral lubricating oils when added thereto in small amounts.

5..A process which comprises polymerizing a low molecular weight polyhydroxy alcohol in the presence of a Friedel-Crafts catalyst to obtain a polymerization product which is substantially non-volatile at about 500 F. and has'the p perty of depressing the pour point of waxy mineral lubricating oils when added thereto in small amounts.

6. Process according to claim 5 in which a dihydroxy alcohol is used.

7. Process according to claim 5 in which a trihydroxy alcohol i used.

8. The process which comprises polymerizing about 1 mol of glycerol in the presence of about /4 mol to 3 mols of anhydrous aluminum chloride and in the presence of an inert solvent at a temperature between the approximate limits of about room temperature and-about 350 F., for a reaction time suflicient to produce a high molecular weight polymerization product which is soluble in mineral oil and has pour depressing properties, hydrolyzing and removing the catalyst,

and'distilling the polymerization product under reduced pressure to a temperature of at least about 500 F. to remove solvent and low boiling products, and to obtain as distillation residue the desired polymerization product soluble in mineral oil and having pour depressing properties.

9. A lubricant comprising a majo proportion of a waxy mineral lubricating oil and a pour depressing amount of a polymerization product of a saturated dihydroxy alcohol having less than 8 carbon atoms, obtained by polymerizing said alcohol in the presence of a Friedel-Crafts catalyst at a temperature between about room temperature and about 350 F., said polymerization product being soluble in mineral oil and substantially non-volatile at about 500 F.

10. A lubricant comprising a major proportion of a waxy mineral lubricating oil and a pour de-- pressing amount of a polymerization product of a saturated trihydroxy alcohol having less than 8 carbon atoms, obtained by polymerizing said alcohol in the presence of a Friedel-Crafts catalyst at a temperature between about room temperature and about 350 F., said polymerization prodymerizing. about 1 mol with about /2 mol to 3 mols of aluminum chloride at a temperature between the approximate limits of room tempera ture and'about 350 F., said polymerization prod- EUGENE mEBER. ,7 MARVIN THORNER. 

